On Dreams
by The Tambourine Man
Summary: Asbel's melancholy one day leads the party to a discussion on dreams.


When one thinks of a journey to save the world, it likely brings to mind the idea of a constant stream of excitement. From Asbel Lhant's experience, a different picture began to form. It was punctuated by a mix of excitement, fear, concern, uncertainty, and a certain joy at seeing the world and once again being with some of the dear friends of his youth.

In between was the monotony of actually getting from place to place. Waking in the early morning, taking a quick meal before breaking camp, moving at a brisk pace through whichever plains, forest, mountains, desert, taiga, or blasted apocalyptic wasteland they found themselves in while fighting off whatever unpleasant creature was out for their blood at the moment. Or possibly picking a fight with such a creature for practice. Or to have something to do. Find a place to stop for the night, set up camp, eat dinner, sleep, repeat.

And it is on the outset of one such inauspicious day, eating breakfast at the inn at a port, that this tale is set.

"Hey, Asbel, is everything alright?" Despite the words, the tone of the question was casual.

The young lord looked up from prodding his plate of barely-eaten eggs to see who had addressed him. The wide brown eyes, mop of almost-orderly pink hair and hands clasped in front of her made the girl recognizable to Asbel instantly.

"Wha? Oh, Cheria. No, everything's fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Why do you ask?"

"Because you've been staring off into space all morning." Her conversational mood was gone, replaced by rather serious concern. "You've hardly said anything, and you're not eating either. Isn't there something on you mind?"

"Nothing. Well, nothing important. I just... I had a really disturbing dream last night."

"Oh, well-"

"A dream? All this moping about has been over a pointless dream?" Asbel looked to see that his choleric brother Hubert, his opposite in many ways and once again looking like he had just swallowed a bug, had apparently been listening to their conversation.

Asbel, taken aback by Hubert's sudden intrusion, hesitated to respond.

"Hey, c'mon. Sometimes dreams can be pretty creepy." said Cheria. "I had a pretty bad one just last week."

Asbel, struck by curiosity, found his voice again. "What happened?"

"Well..." Cheria trailed off for a moment, trying to put it into words. "I dreamed I was Pascal's mother."

Hubert merely raised an eyebrow. Asbel, for the first time since he woke up that day, started to smile.

"Hey! What's so bad about that?" This time, it was Pascal who interjected.

"Well, that wasn't the bad part. Anyway, we were at my house in Lhant, and I was teaching her how to play the piano-"

"This is sounding more like my nightmare!'

"Stop interrupting! You didn't want to learn, I told you to do it anyway. And then..." Cheria hesitated. "Then the piano ate you."

"What." Asbel hadn't meant to say anything, but the abrupt turn had overwhelmed his sense.

"It opened its mouth and pulled you in. You yelled out to help but I couldn't move at all."

"Geez Cheria, chill out. I'm still here, aren't I? Besides, I'd like to see the piano that could take me."

"Sorry. But it was pretty disturbing." Cheria said, drying her eyes.

"I cannot believe that anyone would let themselves get so worked up over something as silly a dream." Hubert interjected.

"Oh? Have you never had a bad dream, Hubert?" Cheria asked.

"So what if I have? That's no business of yours!" Hubert retorted.

"C'mon Hubert, we're all curious." said Cheria.

"Tell us, little bro!" Pascal said.

"Tell us about, Hubert. I'd love to hear it." Asbel said.

Hubert sighed. "If you insist. I was leading my men on an assault on Zavhert. It all seemed to be going well. But then, because it was a dream and everything about it was nonsense, my men panicked and started getting slaughtered, all because I had forgotten one part of my uniform."

"So... you had a dream where you forgot your pants?" Pascal asked.

"I refuse to answer such a ridiculous question." Hubert replied.

"I'd take that as a yes." said Asbel.

"Hmpf. Well, if you're so keen to share dreams, why don't you tell us about yours?"

"O-okay. I was out on Lhant hill, and there I saw Cheria."

Cheria leaned in, trying to hide a smile.

"And then... I drew my sword and stabbed her in the stomach." Asbel said with some difficulty. "And she was just... smiling about it."

For a moment, no one spoke. "Asbel," Sophie asked, "Why? What does that mean?"

"I don't know, Sophie." Said Asbel glumly.

"Oh, I think I might know." Said Malik, sounding surprisingly amused.

"So, why?" Asbel asked.

"If you want to interpret dreams, you need to remember that not everything is literal. So, when you stabbed Cheria-"

"Oh, look at the time!" Said Cheria, sounding a little weird. "Our boat's about to leave. We should really get going.

As it turned out, it would be another hour until their boat departed. And although there was a lot of talking, the topic of dreams never came up.

**Author's Note: This is a story I started on months ago. I wasn't sure about finishing it, so I just left in on my hard drive and focused on other stories. Then today, I thought to myself, "Hey, why don't I finish this?" So, here it is. Merry Christmas!**


End file.
